John Lloyd had many memorable moments on a tennis court during his time on the ATP Tour -- but his performance on centre court at Coral Beach was one he would probably rather forget.

The former British number one, probably best known for marrying Chris Evert, acted as master of ceremonies for Sunday's post-final awards in front of the TV cameras.

The TV producer whipped up some applause from the packed house and Lloyd launched into his spiel over the microphone, paying tribute to the wonderful week of tennis and those involved in organising.

But when he introduced Coral Beach general manager Glenn Shorto, Lloyd described him as being from `Corral Beach'.

Lest viewers of the taped highlights should start to believe that herds of cattle were being rounded up on Bermuda's south shore, the producer asked Lloyd to start again.

Cue applause, cue Lloyd. Again, everything went fine until it came to introducing Shorto, from "Corral Beach''.

By this time, the stands were filled with laughter. And so the intrepid Lloyd tried again.

At last, "corral'' became "coral'', only for Lloyd to run into more problems when he introduced tournament director Alec Anderson as the "tennis director''.

Once more, the agitated producer called a halt to proceedings and there was hilarity all around. When one of the TV crew ran across the court with a fresh video tape for one of the three cameras trained on Lloyd, the laughter reached a crescendo.

To his credit, Lloyd joined in the fun. "I don't have to do this for the BBC,'' he said.

Finally, Lloyd got it right -- fourth time lucky. And the patient champion Jose Acasuso, who speaks no English and must have wondered what was going on, was at last presented with his crystal trophy.

*** TENNIS can be a frustrating game when things don't go according to plan.

Watching some of the players' reactions to frustrating circumstances can be amusing for the onlooker and last week at Coral Beach was no exception.

Australian Scott Draper shattered the tranquil surroundings of Court Seven by taking it out on the ball. During his first-round defeat by Ota Fukarek, he sprinted back towards the baseline in pursuit of a perfect lob. Instead of attempting to keep it in play, Draper hoisted the ball over the spectators and towards the stratosphere.

More common is to take it out on the racket.

David Sanchez provided the most graphic illustration during his semi-final victory over Mike Russell. Throwing his racket down near his chair after a lost game, he then stamped on it, rendering it unusable.

More subdued and more commonplace is to bounce the racket on its edge. Or, as illustrated to perfection by vexed Frenchman Cedric Kauffmann, some shape to hurl the racket, but don't let go.

But if there was an award for the most entertaining show of frustration, it would surely go to top seed Olivier Rochus.

From Page 23 During a changeover in his first-round defeat by Jose Acasuso, Rochus wandered over to the corner of the court and struck up an animated conversation with a wall.

*** A CHANCE to get out of the classroom for a few hours and go on a field trip normally stirs emotions of joy for school kids.

However, a trip to the Open last week didn't impress one band of classmates.

After being told one too many times by the teacher to keep quiet as is customary tennis etiquette, one student had clearly had enough.

"If I knew we'd be leaving for a field trip and still have to shut up all the time I'd have told them to let me stay in the classroom.'' A sharp, terse reply came from the teacher: "Next time you will, when the rest of us will likely be going for a nice swim at the beach!'' *** SPORTS writers can't keep in touch with every sport and sometimes we have to cover activities of which we have little or no clue.

It is in such instances that efforts must be made to research relevant topics that may come up during interviews.

However, this would seem to have been lost on Bermuda Broadcasting Company sports director Mike Sharpe, who took the award for dumbest question asked at the Open, when he queried rising American prodigy Andy Roddick over what sort of results he had encountered recently.

Everyone and their grandmother, but obviously not Sharpe, knew that Roddick had only weeks ago pounded out a victory against Pete Sampras, the reigning Tennis God, with Sampras later annointing his conqueror as the game's next superstar.

*** FURTHER to BBC and their haphazard reporting methods. Why is it that one must hear Alec Anderson reporting the blow-by-blow course of events when the company supposedly has an anchor that is paid to read such things.

One can only assume that along with his duties of Tournament Director, Anderson received additional stipend for his role as on-site reporter.

At least with Anderson, viewers were guaranteed a source possessing in-depth knowledge of the game and its players.